1. Field
The following description relates to a reconfigurable processor, and a method and apparatus for optimizing use of a configuration memory.
2. Description of Related Art
A reconfigurable architecture refers to an architecture that may change hardware configuration of a computing device so that the hardware configuration is better suited to perform the particular task. If a task is processed by fixed hardware of the computing device, and work contents of the task are slightly changed, it is difficult to efficiently process the changed work contents due to fixed functions of the fixed hardware. If the particular task is processed by software, operations of the software may be changed to be appropriate for the changed work contents. However, a processing speed may be slower for software processing than when hardware is used.
The reconfigurable architecture may optimize the utility of the hardware and the software. Such a reconfigurable architecture is significant in the field of digital signal processing (DSP) where a task is repeatedly performed.
The reconfigurable architecture may be of several types, and coarse-grained array (CGA) is one such representative example. A reconfigurable architecture that may use some of CGA as a very long instruction word (VLIW) machine has recently appeared. Such a reconfigurable architecture may have two execution modes such as a CGA mode and a VLIW mode. The reconfigurable architecture having the CGA mode and the VLIW mode may be realized to process a loop operation in the CGA mode and process a general operation in the VLIW mode.